Monday Morning Decathlete: Special Penn Relays Edition

What I learned in my first-ever trip to the Penn Relays, and lessons from its astounding success for the broader world of track and field...

It's a party.
They call it a carnival. Circus might do too.

Both the spectators and the participants take the Penn Relays seriously as a competitive event. They also see it as more than that. It's three days of tremendous fun. Not only is there stuff going in inside the stadium, but outside the stadium in the "festival" area.

The festival area had all kinds of sponsor tents set up with sales and giveaways and promotions. The sales tent set up by Nike included free haircuts and braiding, and the kids lined up and waited an hour or more to get them. Runnerspace was doing live broadcasts. During a storm delay on Thursday, an impromptu break dance competition broke out in the stands.

This is how college football and basketball operates. Tailgating is nothing but partying which is sometimes only nominally associated with a football game. When you go to a college basketball game, part of what you get out of it is the atmosphere: the crazy student section, the band, the cheerleaders, the announcer.

We need to work on keeping track meets fun. We can't sacrifice competitiveness for it, and we need to make sure it's actual fun, not what some fuddy-duddy thinks is fun (like head-splitting music during races). Fun is subjective, and what's appropriate is dependent on many things like place and time. What works at a massive meet like Penn is different than what works at, for example, a college dual meet. But if people start to think going to a track meet is fun, then everything else takes care of itself.

Kansas Relays Downtown Shot Put: Armstrong!

From the Kansas Relays website:

The Kansas Relays took their show to downtown Lawrence Wednesday night to much success. An estimated crowd of at least 2,500 gathered around a man-made shot put area on the corner of Eighth and New Hampshire Streets and witnessed some of the best in the world perform in a fun, excitement-packed setting.

Armstrong's winning distance is quite good, just 6 centimeters off his own Canadian Record.

If 2,500 is an accurate number, it's among the 25 best-attended "track meets" in the USA this year.

Christian Cantwell had been announced as an entrant when the lineups were first made public, but apparently he's not recovered from shoulder surgery yet.

For more, such as that the event was popular and well-received despite Larry Rawson's announcing, check out this Kansas City Star article.

Results:
1. Dylan Armstrong (CAN), 70-07.25 (21.52m)
2. Reese Hoffa, 69-03.50 (21.12m)
3. Adam Nelson, 68-05.25 (20.85m)
4. Corey Martin, 67-11.75 (20.72m)
5. Ryan Whiting, 67-11.00 (20.70m)
6. Dorian Scott (JAM), 66-00.50 (20.12m)
7. Noah Bryant, 65-11.00 (20.09m)
8. Dan Taylor, 62-07.25 (19.08m)

Penn Relays Press Conference #1

The Penn Relays is such a big deal in Philly that they have two press conferences.  The first one took place today, and the second will be on Monday.

Today's presser included head coaches from Florida, Villanova, Tennessee and BYU.  Yes, BYU is coming.  I'm not sure if they've ever come to Penn before.

The coaches tipped their hands as to which relays they're entering and how they think they'll do.  Florida's men, the elephant in the room, is running the 4x100, 4x200, sprint medley and shuttle hurdles, but no 4x400, as they've got a few banged-up runners.

For the others, read on.

Weekend Preview

The relay season kicks off this weekend with the Florida Relays on Friday and Saturday.  Friday is the individual events, Saturday is the relays.

Besides all the hot collegiate action, which I previewed yesterday, some big-name pros are getting started here too.  David Oliver is running his first outdoor race of the year; Francena McCorory and Mary Wineberg are facing off in the 400; and a foursome of Vet Myers, Lauryn Williams, Natasha Hastings, and Bianca Knight are running the 4x100 and 4x200.  (Tyson Gay had considered running on a 4x400 here, but it looks like that's not happening.)

And then there's the brainchild of Florida sprinters Terrell Wilks and Jeff Demps: the fastest mascot challenge.


Flotrack will have coverage and DistancePreps.com will have a live webcast on both days.  Don't miss it!

Another quality relay meet this weekend is the 46th annual Colonial Relays at William and Mary.  The Missouri Relays also takes place in Columbia.

Scored Meets
If you're like me, and you love meets that keep score, you'll have a lot to keep you happy this weekend.

The inaugural LSU Invitational has the home Tigers plus Texas A&M, Illinois, Iowa, UConn and Army.  On both the men's and the women's side, the team battle should be a war.  In terms of individual events, the men's 110 hurdles lines up the top two in the country, Barret Nugent (LSU) and Andrew Riley (Illinois).

The Jim Click Shootout lines up the home Arizona Wildcats against Ohio State, Minnesota and Washington State.  The two from the Big Ten are deep teams that do very well in this kind of competition.

There's a revival of a once-great dual meet series as Tennessee travels to UCLA.  Nebraska and Northern Iowa go to Wichita State.  BYU and Cal St. Northridge come to USC, and that one should be a close matchup between the Cougars and the Trojans.

High Schools
The best track meet in the entire world, the Jamaican Boys' and Girls' Championships (aka "The Champs") is going on in Kingston.  TrackAlerts.com is your one-stop shop for updates, and the live webcast features Ato Boldon.

Road Racing
Here in the USA we have the Cooper River Bridge Run, the Carlsbad 5000, and the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler.  Eliud Kipchoge is in Carlsbad and wants the road world record; Runnerspace is at Cherry Blossom and will be running a new three-feed webcast.

Overseas there's the Prague Half Marathon, the Paralleloop, and the Berlin Half Marathon, plus a special Iberic Trophy 10,000 meters in Spain.

What's On Tomorrow

Tomorrow begins the 82nd Texas Relays, which run through Saturday. Last year the final day's competition was webcast at texassports.com; no word yet on whether it will be again this year.
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